Note To Democrats: Ignore Republican Party Ally’s Survey

To all Arkansas Democratic candidates:  If the Republican Party of Arkansas sent you a questionnaire, would you fill it out?  Of course not.

Last week the Republican Party of Arkansas sent a questionnaire covering various right-wing topics to State Legislative candidates.

Oops, my apologies,  I meant the Arkansas Family Council.

The Arkansas Family Council is, in my opinion, an unofficial arm of the RPA  so it’s easy to get the two confused. The Family Council’s election year surveys are designed to set the campaign agenda on Republican issues.

Every election year, the Family Council sends a questionnaire to legislative, state and federal candidates and their responses are listed in their Voters Guide distributed across Arkansas.

The Family Council’s survey questions are slanted toward topics Republicans want every election to be about: school vouchers, same-sex marriage, abortion, etc. Conveniently, there are no Democratically slanted questions: how to help the middle class, protect Medicaid, create good-paying jobs, improve public schools, how to grow Arkansas’s green economy, etc.

Here are two recent examples of why this questionnaire is a Republican instrument.  First, the latest questionnaire was created in part by Dan Greenberg, former Republican State Representative and political operative. The questions on the 2012 survey cover the topics his right-wing organization, Advance Arkansas, often touts.

Second, the head of Family Council, Jerry Cox, received the “2011 Friend of the Republican Party of Arkansas Award” back in December. That alone should tell you how the Republican Party of Arkansas and the Arkansas Family Council are intertwined.

Therefore, I recommend Democratic candidates never fill out the Family Council (read Republican Party) survey.

Even if a Democratic candidate fills out the survey and agrees with 8 out of 10 Family Council issues, the 2 issues the candidate disagrees with will be used against them in a negative RPA mail piece. I’ve seen it happen too many times and it’s time for Democrats to wise-up to this tactic.

Further, since the candidate foolishly filled out the survey, it gives the attack piece an air of legitimacy, sort of like handing someone bullets to a gun that they then use to shoot you in the foot.

The one helpful thing this survey does is that when a candidate doesn’t fill out the survey, the Family Council lists the candidate’s phone numbers in the Voter Guide with a notation the candidate didn’t reply.  Voters can then call the candidate directly, which allows a candidate to speak to the voters and answers their questions, thus cutting out the middle man known as the Family Council.

To Democratic candidates: If a voter has a question on any topic, answer it. Simple enough.

However, there is no requirement that you must fill out the Arkansas Family Council’s survey, and frankly, you’re foolish if you do.